Girl Scouting gives sense of belonging’

Monday

Aug 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2009 at 12:07 PM

As many times as Ruth Little moved around as a child — and it was a lot — she knew she’d always fit in. That’s because the first thing she’d do when she landed in a new town was join the local Girl Scout troop. And there is little doubt that Girl Scouts helped shape who Little is today. Little has worked for the Girl Scouts of the USA for nearly 40 years, 30 with the Rock River Council. In a month, Little will retire, and the Rock River Council will merge with three other councils in northern Illinois.

Corina Curry

As many times as Ruth Little moved around as a child — and it was a lot — she knew she’d always fit in.

That’s because the first thing she’d do when she landed in a new town was join the local Girl Scout troop.

“Girl Scouting was sort of my entry ticket,” Little explained. “One of the reasons Girl Scouting was so important in my life is everywhere I moved I had an instant peer group. ... There’s a culture change between Illinois and Massachusetts, but being able to join the Girl Scout group — where we share the same law and the promise and the badges — I never really felt that much of an outsider.”

And there is little doubt that Girl Scouts helped shape who Little is today.

Little has worked for the Girl Scouts of the USA for nearly 40 years, 30 with the Rock River Council. But she also studied pottery in college, something she first did as a Girl Scout. And she’s an avid bird watcher — again, something she first learned about while studying for her bird badge.

“There isn’t any question that the exposure to some of these things ends up changing the trajectory of your life,” said the 64-year-old executive director of the council that oversees Girl Scout activities in Boone, Winnebago and Ogle counties.

In a month, Little will retire, and the Rock River Council will merge with three other councils in northern Illinois. The new area will start in Aurora and end at the Mississippi River, Little said.

The merger is less about cost-savings and more about improving services to girls.

“If you’re a girl in this country, and you’re told the Girl Scout program is this, there shouldn’t be a really huge difference in what’s available to you if you’re in place A or place B or place C. But we had a wide disparity because of the resources available to the different councils,” Little said. “So (the national organization) embarked on a program to merge councils across the country so they would be far more equal in the resources.”

Girl Scouting isn’t what it used to be, Little explained. It’s been changing along with the rest of the world. Badges dealing with science and technology are all the rage, as well as computers, car repair and global studies. Cooking has always been a Girl Scout badge mainstay, but today it’s more about gourmet cooking.

All four service centers will continue to operate, Little said, serving their immediate areas.

“We are hoping that most leaders don’t experience a huge change — that they find their lives going along pretty much as they did with the exception that they will have more opportunities and more exciting things to do,” she said. “I expect the council will be able to achieve some really remarkable things.”

As for Little, she’s staying put for now. She’s going to enjoy her last 30 days as the leader of the Rock River Council and figure out the rest from there. She’s eager to get more involved with the community and put more time in the boards on which she serves and personal interests like gardening; bird watching; traveling with her husband, Tom; and enjoying her cats.

“I have four exceptional cats. ... They’re just exceptional,” Little said. “We’ve had cats for a long time, but these cats they love each other in a way that none of our other cats ever have. We get a lot of pleasure from our cats. I can’t imagine life without pets.”

Q. What is the Girl Scouts Rock River Valley Council?

A. Right now, we serve Boone, Winnebago and Ogle counties. We have 1,400 adult volunteers and about 20 staff members. We are a mostly volunteer organization. We serve roughly 4,600 girls from kindergarten to 12th grade. The mission of Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place. Girl Scouting is a program that connects volunteer adults with groups of girls. The girls join to have fun, obviously. The leaders have a goal of making sure that the activities they choose are fun and do in fact provide opportunities for girls to learn and develop values.

Q. Why do you do what you do?

A. I suppose one of the things is that I was a Girl Scout. Not everybody who works in the Girl Scouts was a Girl Scout, but many, many, many of us were. That’s true of our leaders, too. They become leaders because they have good memories of Girl Scouting, and they want to bring that to girls today.

Q. Why is Girl Scouts important to the community?

A. We bring to children — in many ways very much the same value that gangs bring to children: the sense of belonging, the peer group that accepts you, the common Girl Scout promise and law, the common values among every Girl Scout throughout the country. It’s the same badges, the same promise, the same goals. And that sense of being part of being something big, bigger than yourself, and important, and the relationship that children have with their peers. And that relationship is very important. It’s needed because it’s harder than ever to be a child today. I cannot remember at what age I was when I decided whether or not I was going to be an underaged drinker or whether I was going to go on drugs. But I know for a fact it was not in grade school. It was not in junior high, and it probably wasn’t in high school. And the world has changed. I think our kids desperately need opportunities to have positive peer groups and positive role models and positive experiences.

Q. What or who inspires you?

A. Certainly my sense of philanthropy as an obligation comes from my parents. My first Girl Scout leader, besides being wonderful and a lifelong friend, was in the Women’s Army Corps, the WACs, before there were women in the army. She was incredibly organized. There was evidence she was in the service. She was very good at giving directions, clearly and loudly. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by really great people who’ve had something to admire and something to teach me. People in Rockford like Jerry Paulson from the Natural Land Institute taught me a lot about the environmental things I didn’t know about. Lee Johnson, the bird bander, taught me a lot.

Q. What will success look like in five years?

A. I would love it if girls would stay through their senior year in Girl Scouts. As you might imagine, the older they get, the more opportunities they have, and we serve fewer girls in the older grades than in the younger grades. But I know that the opportunities that we have in our last years in high school are truly wonderful, and I’d like too see more girls take part in that. I think our program changes are going to make it far easier for girls who are currently struggling to balance. They want to be on the soccer team. They want to be in the school play. They want to be in yearbook. They want to be in Girl Scouts, and there isn’t enough time in the day. We’re finding ways to deliver our program in shorter term bites, so that we make it possible for girls to be Girl Scouts in the older years. For myself, if I’m just perking along with good health and a positive attitude, I’ll be satisfied.

Occupation: CEO, Girl Scouts Rock River Valley Council; also worked in Green Hills Council in Freeport from 1975 to 1979 and South Cook County Council in Homewood from 1970 to 1973. She’s worked for the Girl Scouts since 1970.

Community involvement: Currently a board member of Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, treasurer of the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Over the years, she’s been on the boards of Rockford Sexual Assault Counseling, the Natural Land Institute, Booker Washington Community Center, and the local Audubon Society and the United Way of Rock River Valley. For many years she and her husband banded birds at Sand Bluff Observatory. They currently tag monarch butterflies for Monarch Watch, a project of the University of Kansas. Hobbies include gardening, photography, bird watching and all things nature-related.

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